[SOLVED] New gaming build, budget flexible, use €2000 as orientation

horstp

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I've just moved into a second home and because there is 1,000km between my two homes now, I feel I need a whole new build, as hauling my rig around seems unreasonable. Also, my other PC is 10 years old at this point and even though it has been updated to cope with what I use it for, a 10-year-old main board poses certain limitations.

My budget is flexible, I think staying below €2,000 would be reasonable, but if I could get a significant boost in performance for a couple hundred more, I'd probably do that.

My primary uses for the PC will be gaming and internet surfing. I have a bad habit of opening thousands (literally!) of tabs when surfing and the game that I will probably be playing for the foreseeable future (and certainly the most demanding in terms of gaming performance) is Total War: Warhammer 2. So ideally my new build could run that game on maximum settings (ultra unit scale, first and foremost) and handle an unreasonable amount of open tabs.

Approximate Purchase Date: soon, i.e. I will buy parts as soon as I have all the info I need

Budget Range: flexible, ideally below €2,000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: surfing, watching movies, gaming (Total War: Warhammer 2)

Are you buying a monitor: Yes


Parts to Upgrade:Completely new build

Do you need to buy OS: Yes (and I despise Windows 10 so either Win7 compatibility or help in tweaking Win10 to effective become Win7 would be greatly appreciated)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Don't care. Last time I built a PC, I bought parts from various websites

Location: EU, Germany / Croatia

Parts Preferences: I don't care.

Overclocking: Probably not. I'd rather just buy better parts than reduce life expectancy of my build. If it can be done without harming parts, sure, but you'd have to tell me how.

SLI or Crossfire: I don't know what that is.

Your Monitor Resolution: I don't know what's common here. My current PC has 1920x1080, I think that's enough?

Additional Comments: A quiet PC would be much preferred.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Not really upgrading, but my current PC slows down significantly during large battles in TW: Warhammer 2.


Please let me know if you need any more info from me!
 
Solution
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Mrshp8

I have added the 280mm version on the Arctic CPU cooler. Looks like PCpartspicker doesn't include all possible merchants, so I have, for example, just found the monitor for €439 elsewhere. Looks like it might be a little cheaper in the end!

I'm just a bit insecure about the more expensive bits, at the moment. Maybe you could give me a little more guidance there, if I'm not being too demanding of your time!

So basically, I'm wondering regarding CPU, Motherboard, GPU (and maybe the monitor), how much difference in price and performance the next cheaper and the next dearer options would make respectively.

Also, a much more general question: With which of these parts does the brand...
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Mrshp8

I have added the 280mm version on the Arctic CPU cooler. Looks like PCpartspicker doesn't include all possible merchants, so I have, for example, just found the monitor for €439 elsewhere. Looks like it might be a little cheaper in the end!

I'm just a bit insecure about the more expensive bits, at the moment. Maybe you could give me a little more guidance there, if I'm not being too demanding of your time!

So basically, I'm wondering regarding CPU, Motherboard, GPU (and maybe the monitor), how much difference in price and performance the next cheaper and the next dearer options would make respectively.

Also, a much more general question: With which of these parts does the brand matter? I mean, for example in the case of RAM, I guess what matters is this bit: "(2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200", so could I just order any RAM with those specifications and it wouldn't make a difference? Or did you specifically select this brand because it's better somehow?
Same goes for the SSDs, the case,...

And one final question: How much room would I need to allow "around" the case? Can it be wedged in between a wall and the side of my desk or does it need room to "breathe" and if so, how much is enough? I noticed some desks have a compartment for your PC, but that would mean that the same heated air would circulated within that space, right?
RAM - If you get DDR4-3200 you also want to look at the CAS Latency column. You want the RAM to have CAS Latency of 16 or lower for 3200MHz RAM. In the case of the RAM I selected it has 16-18-18-38 sub timings. Due to the latency numbers being larger than DDR or DDR2, the jump in performance from 16-18-18-38 RAM to 14-16-16-36 does not make as large a difference as the jump from 7-7-7-20 to 4-4-4-12 RAM in the DDR1 days. Reason is the percent change is smaller now so while 14-16-16-36 RAM is faster, your overall system performance will only increase by 1-2% for a 100%+ increase in price. All that being said the G.Skill RAM that I listed happens to be the cheapest on pcpartpicker. I did a quick look at the QVL for the suggested motherboard and that specific kit isn't on the list. However, there are other kits from G.Skill are. The cheapest RAM that is on the QVL is the Kingston HyperX Fury. Just because something isn't listed on the QVL doesn't mean it won't work, it just hasn't been tested.

CPU - The next cheapest option is the Ryzen 3700X. In applications the difference in performance between the 3700X & 3800X is maximum 5%. The applications with the most instances of 5% difference are rendering/encoding applications. There are advantages of going with the 3700X as well. One huge difference is the 65W TDP vs 105W TDP. For the Ryzen 65W CPUs the max power draw to the socket is 88W vs 142W for the 105W CPUs. The lower power draw means that 3700X produces less heat and the stock 125W TRDP cooler is enough to keep it cool. Best reason not to use the stock cooler for the 3700X is that it gets too loud. However, a mid-range air cooler runs 40-50 Euro and will be a solid replacement.

Motherboard - The MSI X570 Gaming Edge WiFi is a budget X570 motherboard. The VRMs are all cooled by heatsinks. The VRMs are a 4+1 design with doublers making it an effective 8+2 design, which is typical of budget boards. Due to the VRM setup this isn't a motherboard that you would use for extreme overclocking, but mild overclocking is a possibility. Overall the board is a solid budget X570 choice.

GPU - The direct downgrades, performance wise, from the 5700XT would be the 5700 or RTX 2060 Super. Both of those GPUs will have around a 10% drop in performance compared to the 5700XT depending on the game. Cost wise the same GPU brand and model in the 5700 vs 5700XT ends up being 11% cheaper before shipping costs. Red Dragon 5700 vs Red Dragon 5700XT. Going to the RTX 2060 Super there is an increase in price for a decrease in performance. The cheapest 2060 Super comes in at the same price as the mid level 5700XT. From a price/performance perspective there is little reason to go with the RTX 2060 Super.

Monitor - You have a budget of ~2000 Euro including monitor. While a cheaper monitor could be used and have savings added to a different component, the monitor is what can be used for the next decade or more. The Phillips monitor that I suggested uses the same Samsung panel that my C34F791 uses. While this panel is 2 years old and "only" has a 100Hz max refresh rate while newer ones are 120+Hz, it is already hard for GPUs to drive 2560x1440 games at 144 FPS much less 3440x1440 at 120 FPS. The monitor does have FreeSync so when that is enabled the monitor will be able to adjust its refresh rate from 48-100Hz to keep games smooth. Because 21:9 monitors are still more of a niche product even the "budget" ones are at least mid level 16:9 quality. A review of this monitor states: "The bottom line; a solidly built and feature-rich monitor offering an immersive UltraWide experience, more for work than play." While it may be for more "work than play," for Total War 2 it is more than enough. Here is a full article on the experience of ultrawide monitors. For myself having gone with an ultrawide monitor 2 years ago, I would never go back to a normal 16:9 monitor for home use ever again. The extra screen real estate is a nice bonus and for productivity it cannot be beat. I am able to replicate the use case of 3 of the 4 monitors I have at my office desk with my single monitor while working at home.

Case - I choose that case due to design, features, performance, and silence. I personally love the minimalist design of the case and it has good performance. The one I choose is windowless so that means there is sound dampening material on both side panels. That will keep the system much quieter than cases without it. The added 140mm case fan is to be used on the front to increase airflow into the case. Ideally this will give a positive pressure design that will limit dust buildup. You can go with a cheaper case, but then you will sacrifice performance, features, or how quiet it is.

SSD - Right now the difference in price between a top end SATA SSD and the budget NVMe drives is minimal, with the NVMe being slightly more expensive. Even though they are budget NVMe drives, they are always faster than the top SATA drives. The Crucial P1 is a decent budget drive and will work quite nicely as the OS/Application drive. It is all of 7 Euros more expensive than the SATA WD Blue SSD, but you will get about double the performance, at least benchmarks show that. The 1TB SSD is the WD Blue SN550, it is the best budget NVMe SSD you can get. For the extra 15 Euro over the Sabrent Rocket Q it is worth while for the best budget drive. 15 Euros more than the SN550 gets you the ADATA XPG 8200 Pro which is a high end NVMe drive. On paper the performance is about double the SN550, but in real world benchmarks the performance is much closer. The SATA WD Blue SSD comes in at 30 Euros cheaper than the SN550. At this point in time it doesn't make much sense to use SATA SSD if you have free M.2 NVMe slots. The NVMe is the newer technology and the next gen consoles are both going to have NVMe SSDs in them. In theory the developers might be able to find a use for the extra performance that those SSDs offer.

For the space around the case you need enough room for air to flow behind it. My desktop is about 10-12cm from the wall and has about 3cm free space on each side. If this is going to be on a carpeted floor you will want to have something hard underneath it like a board. Reason is carpet will block airflow from underneath the case so having a hard object under the case is ideal. There are two big reasons to have a case setup with positive air pressure. First it keeps dust to a minimum by forcing the incoming air through the intake fans that have dust filters. Secondly expelled hot air isn't recycled because all the fresh air comes in from the front. Silverstone did a write up of the difference between positive and negative pressure designs in a case.

Here is another design with changing the CPU & cooler, I added one more case fan for the front intake to make doubly sure it is positive air flow design.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€288.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler (€42.75 @ Aquatuning)
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard (€202.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€133.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€58.90 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€135.19 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Red Dragon Video Card (€407.99 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case (€79.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€98.89 @ Alternate)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (€40.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Fractal Design X2 GP-14 (Black) 68.4 CFM 140 mm Fan (€16.82 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Fractal Design X2 GP-14 (Black) 68.4 CFM 140 mm Fan (€16.82 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Monitor: Philips 345B1C/00 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor (€458.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1980.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-17 15:52 CEST+0200
 
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Solution
Actually went up to 92°C just there... here: I've taken some photos to give you an idea of what the desk / room looks like. With the door to the left and the window/radiator to the right, I really don't know where else to put the PC...
NiwRIS2.jpg

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Moving all the fans to the front isn't an option, is it?
That really does only just fit in there heh. I think I would seriously consider returning the case and motherboard and get ITX ones so it would fit better.
 
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€293.99 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 51.4 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler (€50.18 @ ARLT)
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard (€204.89 @ Alternate)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€121.89 @ Alternate)
Storage: Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€58.90 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€132.91 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC III Ultra Video Card (€427.99 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case (€79.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€98.89 @ Alternate)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (€40.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Fractal Design X2 GP-14 (Black) 68.4 CFM 140 mm Fan (€16.76 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Monitor: Philips 345B1C/00 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor (€458.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1985.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-14 17:00 CEST+0200

The 500GB SSD is for the OS & Applications while the 1TB is for games.
 
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horstp

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Thank you! Do you feel any individual part could be swapped out to save a significant amount without really losing performance? I was thinking maybe the monitor was rather top of the line, for example? (And that statement is based solely on the fact that I have never in my life paid more than €200 for a monitor)

Regarding SSD and HD, how significant is the difference in perfomance between installing a game on the SSD or the HD? I was under the impression that it was significant, but I may well be mistaken. I tend to only really play one (large) game at a time, so I could swap them out.
 
Thank you! Do you feel any individual part could be swapped out to save a significant amount without really losing performance? I was thinking maybe the monitor was rather top of the line, for example? (And that statement is based solely on the fact that I have never in my life paid more than €200 for a monitor)

Regarding SSD and HD, how significant is the difference in perfomance between installing a game on the SSD or the HD? I was under the impression that it was significant, but I may well be mistaken. I tend to only really play one (large) game at a time, so I could swap them out.
The monitor is something that not skimping on is nice. About 2 years ago I got a Samsung C34F791, which is what this Phillips panel is based on, and I have not been sad. Before then I hadn't spent more than $150 on a monitor. 2 years later I would never use a standard dual monitor setup ever again. At work I have 4x 1080p monitors but with this I can replace 3 of them.

With the SSD vs HDD question right now it deals more with load times and 99th percentile frames. Gaming with SSD will give a more stable and predictable performance. As more games are written for the PS5 & Xbox Next Gen, SSD will become more important to overall gaming performance. Having an OS/Application drive separate from everything else is ideal. That way if something happens to the OS and a reinstall is needed all you lose is the OS & things like Chrome.
 

horstp

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In terms of losing data, games would be no big concern to me. They are quickly reinstalled and they usually place their savegames on the system drive by default anyway, right? All my other data would on the HD, definitely.

I guess in terms of the operating system, there is no way to build a Win7-friendly system that can compete nowadays?

Is there a specific reason you went for AMD / Radeon as opposed to Intel?

RE: the monitor, I'd have to see if that model is feasible. The jump from a single 24" to a 34" is rather big and I guess I'd have to get a completely different desk in order to be able to sit far enough from such a monster :D
 
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (€406.99 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler (€81.79 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: MSI Z490-A PRO ATX LGA1200 Motherboard (€176.80 @ Alza)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€105.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€119.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card (€537.80 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (€61.60 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€119.00 @ ARLT)
Total: €1609.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-15 11:32 CEST+0200
 

horstp

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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (€406.99 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler (€81.79 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: MSI Z490-A PRO ATX LGA1200 Motherboard (€176.80 @ Alza)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€105.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€119.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card (€537.80 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (€61.60 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€119.00 @ ARLT)
Total: €1609.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-15 11:32 CEST+0200
This config is missing OS, Monitor and Case Fan, right?
 
In terms of losing data, games would be no big concern to me. They are quickly reinstalled and they usually place their savegames on the system drive by default anyway, right? All my other data would on the HD, definitely.

I guess in terms of the operating system, there is no way to build a Win7-friendly system that can compete nowadays?

Is there a specific reason you went for AMD / Radeon as opposed to Intel?

RE: the monitor, I'd have to see if that model is feasible. The jump from a single 24" to a 34" is rather big and I guess I'd have to get a completely different desk in order to be able to sit far enough from such a monster :D
Using Steam you can decide where you want the games to be installed by default. Even during the install of programs you can easily decide where you want to program to be installed. Whenever possible it is best practice to have a separate OS drive. Most people will never do that on their desktop/laptop but in the server world that is common practice. For one it allows for more flexibility of the system. If you aren't installing games onto the OS drive then you will almost always be sure that you will always have enough space for updates and other applications.

There is no reason to build a Win 7 system any more. If you need Win 7 for something you can run it as a VM on Win 10 Pro with Hyper-V or download VMware Workstation Player and use that. Not only has Win 7 been out of support since January, none of the new CPUs have drivers to work on the system.

The reason for the AMD/Radeon was price/performance. The RX5700XT has about 95% the performance of the 2070 Super but costs 75% as much. The Ryzen CPUs offer single threaded performance close to the Intel CPUs but typically better multi-threaded performance. In gaming the 3700X performs about 3-5% slower than the 9900K when gaming at 1080p with a 2080Ti. As you turn the resolution to 1440p & 4k the performance difference disappears. Not to mention the Ryzens use A LOT less power. The 3700X is a 65W TDP chip that will use at max 88W, where as the 9900K is a 95W TDP CPU that will use up to 200W depending on the work being done. The 10th Gen Intels are even wore with the 10700K having a max draw of 225W and the 10900K 250W. In the AMD build I suggested, I added a CPU cooler to it but the AMD chips come with decent coolers. The main reason to change the cooler is because they are too loud for you.
 
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The 34" monitor isn't a big as you would expect. Since it is an Ultrawide, the physical height is the same as a 27" 16:9 monitor. The overall dimensions of my 34" monitor are as follows: 31.8"W x 20.3"H x 12.2"D That takes up a good bit less space than a traditional 2x 24" 1080p monitor setup, all while giving 89.5% the pixel width but 133% the pixel height. The curve of the monitor also helps in how you view the screen. For work I sit about 3ft from my monitor without any issues. If you sit closer the pixel density of 110PPI is higher than a 24" 1080p so the text remains clear when you sit closer. I have yet to talk to someone who went with an Ultrawide monitor who would ever go back to a traditional 16:9 regardless of the resolution of the 16:9.
 
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Personally This is what I would do:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€293.99 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100x 57.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€94.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI X470 GAMING PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (€131.80 @ Alza)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€176.89 @ Alternate)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€132.91 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB NITRO+ Video Card (€456.90 @ Alza)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (€96.31 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€99.89 @ Alternate)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (€40.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Corsair ML120 75 CFM 120 mm Fans (€24.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Corsair ML120 75 CFM 120 mm Fans (€24.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Monitor: Philips 345B1C/00 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor (€458.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €2032.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-15 14:44 CEST+0200

Win10 can basically be made to be Win7+ if you turn off all the Cortana features. You can easily make both the start menu and the lower taskbar also look and function similarly. I remember also dreading the WIn7 > Win10 switch, however, I have learned that it is basically just better and can be made to look and function similarly to Win7.
 
The 34" monitor isn't a big as you would expect. Since it is an Ultrawide, the physical height is the same as a 27" 16:9 monitor. The overall dimensions of my 34" monitor are as follows: 31.8"W x 20.3"H x 12.2"D That takes up a good bit less space than a traditional 2x 24" 1080p monitor setup, all while giving 89.5% the pixel width but 133% the pixel height. The curve of the monitor also helps in how you view the screen. For work I sit about 3ft from my monitor without any issues. If you sit closer the pixel density of 110PPI is higher than a 24" 1080p so the text remains clear when you sit closer. I have yet to talk to someone who went with an Ultrawide monitor who would ever go back to a traditional 16:9 regardless of the resolution of the 16:9.
Personally I go with one 27' 16:9 1440p gaming monitor and one 32' 16:9 4k productivity and show watching monitor. I do however have a large L desk.
 
The 9900k/10700k will have much higher minimum fps in Total War: Warhammer 2 compared to 3700x at 1080p
Here are the minimums from PCGamer from the 3700X launch review for Total War: Warhammer 2 - 67.9 (9900K) vs 62.3 (3700X) at 1080p with a 2080Ti That shows a 5fps difference and both are already over 60fps. Average fps 107.7 (9900K) vs 98.6 (3700X). Once you aren't using a 2080Ti that will be a lot closer same as it would be at higher resolutions. Throw in the added cooling requirements for the 9900K/10700K and those 5 extra fps cost quite a bit.
https://www.pcgamer.com/amd-ryzen-7-3700x-review/
 

horstp

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I guess I'll have to payy my 4 foot wide desk on to my wife then and buy a bigger one :D

I don't think I'd go for two screens again, if only for appearances. To the people around me having two screens just screams "gamer" and I want to keep up appearances at least a litte bit :D

But yeah, 5 fps when above 60 already would not be worth a lot to me.

What happens on such a ultra wide monitor when playing older games? A lot of the time I play old stuff from the 90s....
 
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I guess I'll have to payy my 4 foot wide desk on to my wife then and buy a bigger one :D

I don't think I'd go for two screens again, if only for appearances. To the people around me having two screens just screams "gamer" and I want to keep up appearances at least a litte bit :D

But yeah, 5 fps when above 60 already would not be worth a lot to me.

What happens on such a ultra wide monitor when playing older games? A lot of the time I play old stuff from the 90s....
I have played games that don't have the resolution support for 3440x1440. What I end up doing is playing at 2560x1440 instead and just have black bars on the side. The monitor can support most game resolutions up to 3440x1440.
 
Would get better performance at WQHD with less CPU and more GPU:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (€174.99 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler (€42.75 @ Aquatuning)
Motherboard: MSI X470 GAMING PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (€131.80 @ Alza)
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL17 Memory (€81.89 @ Alternate)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€132.91 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card (€744.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (€67.79 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€99.89 @ Alternate)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (€40.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: ARCTIC Arctic F14 PWM 77.3 CFM 140 mm Fan (€8.49 @ Aquatuning)
Case Fan: ARCTIC Arctic F14 PWM 77.3 CFM 140 mm Fan (€8.49 @ Aquatuning)
Monitor: Philips 345B1C/00 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor (€458.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1991.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-15 15:28 CEST+0200
 
Would get better performance at WQHD with less CPU and more GPU:

Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card (€744.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Only 16-20% more performance but 75% more expensive. I would personally have a more balanced computer and if I want to spend more on a GPU later mind as well spend 400 in 2022 for 2x the performance as the 800 euro card now.
 
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horstp

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I tend to agree with that assessment. The top of the line parts are usually disproportionately expensive. And 20% more for almost twice the price would not be something that interests me. That's why I had a hard time defining a budget. I mean, if there was a config that would let me run huge battles with ultra unit scale at 100 fps for 4000, I'd probably do it. But a couple of fps for 500 bucks? No way Jose.
 
I tend to agree with that assessment. The top of the line parts are usually disproportionately expensive. And 20% more for almost twice the price would not be something that interests me. That's why I had a hard time defining a budget. I mean, if there was a config that would let me run huge battles with ultra unit scale at 100 fps for 4000, I'd probably do it. But a couple of fps for 500 bucks? No way Jose.
About the only thing that might be worth while in changing would be going to the Ryzen 3800X. It is about 8% more expensive but you might get 5% better performance. Reason is it has a higher TDP so it can stay at boost clocks longer and had a higher base clock. The TDP of the 3800X is 105W which might hit 144W in its PL2. Having a cooler than can do 180W+ TDP will keep everything nice and cool. The Shadow Rock 2 cooler is 180W, the Shadow Rock 3 runs 190W. Otherwise if you want an AIO going with a 240mm AIO is plenty. For an AIO I would look at the Arctic Liquid Freezer II. The 280mm has gotten great reviews and the 240mm is the same just with a smaller radiator. They also have a VRM fan to help keep your VRMs cool.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€79.99 @ Aquatuning)
Total: €79.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-15 21:28 CEST+0200